My great-grandfather, Robert Firth, came from Orkney. He signed on with the Hudson's Bay Company, boarded a ship in Stromness sometime around 1850, and sailed around the Horn to Fort Victoria (later, Victoria, British Columbia). Governor Douglas sent him to the nearby San Juan Islands at the north end of Puget Sound to take over the HBC operations there after a fellow named Griffin left. He settled there and raised a family. I'm told that the San Juans reminded him of Orkney—but with lots of trees!!

I've read a lot about Orkney. I can't make the festival, but I would give my eye-teeth to come. Is it true that the wind off the north Atlantic blows so constantly that whenever a native of Orkney goes somewhere else, they tend to lean toward the west?

Don Firth
Seattle, Washington
(The San Juans are a day-trip from here; Orkney is a bit farther).